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Randhawa, Bhullar stay in the hunt

Rakesh Rao

GREATER NOIDA: Windy conditions at the Jaypee Greens here may have made things difficult for most contenders but swept Kiwi Mark Brown to a one-shot lead with Jyoti Randhawa and Gaganjeet Bhullar in close pursuit as the $400,000 SAIL Open golf promised an exciting finish on Saturday.

On this day, club-selection was difficult but Brown was not complaining after shooting a five-under 67 that gave him a three-round aggregate of 205. “It is very windy in Wellington,” said the 33-year-old, revealing his comfort level in these conditions.

Following the leader were Welshman Rhys Davies, the young pro who played the US Open last year, and Aussie Scott Hend.

The Indian interest remained firmly in the hands of Randhawa and Bhullar. Randhawa, one of the two overnight leaders, was three-over after seven holes but rallied well to finish with a par round and joined Bhullar at the tied fourth spot. The Indian duo was two strokes behind the leader.

Tony Carolan, joint leader on the first two days, dropped three shots on the last six holes to slip to tied 12th spot at six-under 210. Randhawa thought he had a “good” 72 on this day.

“From being two-over at the turn, to a par round was quite a recovery,” said Randhawa, who mentioned about being “tired and not being able to concentrate.”

Bhullar, who started at six-under, moved to 10-under after an ‘eagle’ on the 569-yard 12th hole. Known to be among the long-hitters in the country,

Bhullar sent the ball to over 400 yards off the tee and went on to putt from 25 feet.

At this stage, he shared the lead with Brown before a bogey on the 16th pulled him down.

The scores (Indians unless stated): 205-Mark Brown (Nzl) (69, 69, 67); 206-Rhys Davies (Wal) (70, 69, 67); Scott Hend (Aus) (67, 70, 69); 207-Gaganjeet Bhullar (70, 68, 69); Danny Chia (Mal) (68, 70, 69); Adam Groom (Aus) (67, 71, 69); Jyoti Randhawa (67, 68, 72); 208-Kane Webber (Aus) (70, 70, 68) 208; 209-Mardan Mamat (Sin) (71, 69, 69); Noh Seung-Yul (Kor) (68, 70, 71) and Wang Ter-Chang (Tpe) (69, 67, 73).

Other Indians: 210-Ashok Kumar (70, 69, 71); 212-Harinder Gupta (69, 70, 73); 214-Dinesh Kumar (68, 69, 77); 215-Vivek Bhandari (72, 71, 72); 216-Randhir Ghotra (72, 70, 74); Anirban Lahiri (72, 72, 72); Mukesh Kumar (72, 73, 71); 217-Rahul Ganapathy (72, 72, 73); 218-Karanjit Singh (70, 73, 75); 219-Naman Dawar (72, 73, 74); Amritinder Singh (71, 73, 76); 220-Vinod Kumar (69, 72, 79); Digvijay Singh (71, 73, 76); Ali Sher (69, 75, 76); Arjun Singh (74, 71, 75); 221-Gaurav Pratap Singh (69, 73, 79); 222-Shankar Das (73, 72, 77); 223-Raju Ali (71, 73, 79) and Mohammad Salim (73, 72, 78).

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